The Bolsheviks
Although not through black magic, Rasputin is partially responsible for the rise of the Bolsheviks. Historically, his economic reforms brought famine and financial decay to the Russian Empire. This - alongside with the growing popular dissent against the landholding class, the debt caused by Russia's involvement in World War I, and the progressive encroachment of the October Manifesto of 1905 by the monarchy - is said to be the primary cause for the fall of the Czardom. The Bolshevik seizure of power first started with the February Revolution of 1917. Where in response to the nation-wide unrest, the State Duma forced the Czar to abdicate and in his place was Prime Minister Alexander along with his liberal/social-democratic dominated provisional government. However, due to the provisional government's continual involvement in the costly Great War and their suspected appeasement to landlords and industrialists, popular uprisings turned against Alexander and in favor of socialist revolutionaries. A radical split-off of the former "Russian Social Democratic Labor Party," known as the Bolsheviks (meaning "majority"), led by Vladimir Lenin, Leon Trotsky, and Joseph Stalin, became the dominant faction in the provisional government's opposition. In October of 1917, a militia of the pro-Bolshevik "Petrograd Worker's Council" invaded Petrograd's ministry and overthrew the provisional government. The result was a wide-spread internal conflict in post-revolutionary Russia known as the "Russian Civil War." Entire nations declared independence from Russia and the country itself was split in a conflict between the "Reds" (Bolsheviks, radical socialists, and anarchists) and the "Whites" (monarchists, Mensheviks, nationalists, and liberals). Even foreign countries became directly involved in this Civil War to support the Whites. By the early 20's, the Reds emerged victorious in securing their control over Russia. After the Civil War, the Bolsheviks also subdued their own non-Bolshevik allies. The Bolshevik-dominated governments of Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, and Caucasus formed a federation in 1923 called the "Union of Soviet Socialist Republics" under the original Bolshevik leaders (Lenin, Trotsky, and Stalin). It was also at this time that a battalion of Red soldiers escorted Czar Nicholas II and his family to an underground bunker where they were executed by gunfire. There is historical debate to this day as to whether Vladimir Lenin directly ordered this execution or not. Finally, after Lenin's death, Trotsky was sent into exile and the enormous power vacuum within the infant USSR was filled by the remaining leader, General Secretary Joseph Stalin. Stalin afterwards sent the Bolshevik secret police (People's Commissariat of Internal Affairs) to assassinate Trotsky in Mexico. Stalin would then re-organize the USSR's administration into his personal totalitarian dictatorship. He died in 1953 from multiple illnesses. Stalin's health deteriorated towards the end of World War II. He suffered from atherosclerosis from his heavy smoking, a mild stroke around the time of the Victory Parade, and a severe heart attack in October 1945. In the early morning hours of 1 March 1953, after an all-night dinner and a movie, Stalin arrived at his Kuntsevo residence 15 km west of Moscow centre, with interior minister Lavrentiy Beria and future premiers Georgy Malenkov, Nikolai Bulganin, and Nikita Khrushchev, where he retired to his bedroom to sleep. At dawn, Stalin did not emerge from his room. Although his guards thought that it was strange not to see him awake at his usual time, they were strictly instructed not to bother him and left him alone the entire day. At around 10 p.m., he was discovered by Peter Lozgachev, the Deputy Commandant of Kuntsevo, who entered his bedroom to check on him and recalled the scene of Stalin's lying on his back on the floor of his room beside his bed, wearing pyjama bottoms and an undershirt, his clothes soaked in stale urine. A frightened Lozgachev asked Stalin what happened to him, but all he could get out of him was unintelligible responses that sounded like "Dzhhhhh." Lozgachev used the bedroom telephone to frantically call a few party officials; he told them that Stalin may have had a stroke and asked them to send good doctors to the Kuntsevo residence immediately. Lavrentiy Beria was informed and arrived a few hours afterwards. The doctors arrived in the early morning of 2 March when they changed Stalin's bedclothes and tended to him. They diagnosed him with a cerebral hemorrhage (stroke) caused by hypertension (high blood pressure), with stomach hemorrhage facilitating. He was treated in his dacha with leeches, as was customary at the time. On 3 March his double Felix Dadaev was recalled from vacation to Moscow "to be ready to stand in for Stalin if needed", which was never needed. On 4 March Stalin's illness was covered in the media in surprising detail such as pulse, blood pressure and urinalysis; for convenience the time of his stroke was said to be 2 March and his location as Moscow. The bedridden Stalin died on 5 March 1953, at the age of 74. Background in the Movie The Bolsheviks were Rasputin's revolutionists when he sold his soul for the power to destroy the Romanov family, casting the Russian Revolution as revenge. Execution Soon after, for revenge, he sold his soul in exchange for a unholy reliquary, which he used to cast a curse on the family. Rasputin's revolutionists charged through the palace gates and caused destruction upon the palace, including overthrowing the statue of Nicholas II. After the Revolution The Bolsheviks managed to kill six of the Romanov family - Tsar Nicholas, Tsarina Alexandra, Grand Duchesses Olga, Tatiana and Maria Nikolaevna and Tsarevich/Grand Duke Alexei Nikolaievich Romanov. Soon afterwards, Russia was under communist rule, Marie returned to Paris and Anastasia, who is now called Anya, was sent to an orphanage. Gallery Anastasia-Blu-Ray-anastasia-29486148-1356-576.jpg|The Bolsheviks invading the palace Anastasia-Blu-Ray-anastasia-29486197-1356-576.jpg|The Bolsheviks charging through the gates Anastasia-Blu-Ray-anastasia-29486362-1356-576.jpg|The Bolsheviks bursting through the door Anastasia-Blu-Ray-anastasia-29486373-1356-576.jpg|One of the Bolsheviks knocking out Dimtri Category:Characters